Traveling here and there, without a spare….

Apparently India did not want to let us leave without a little something special to take with us.  After a bit of back and forth, India decided that she would give Paula a powerful respiratory/bacterial infection and 103 degree temperatures for days and for Dan, food poisoning, the symptoms of which, warrant no description.  No trip to India is complete without these two ailments, so now we can be assured that we have really experienced India fully. 

On the plus side, this gave us an opportunity to experience India’s private heath care system, which proved to be quite good, especially if you are paying the “foreign tax.”  I called the Bombay Hospital the morning before our 11pm departure to South Africa and was given an appointment with a doctor for 30 minutes from then.  A short bit later I am in with a doctor who looks like a close approximation to the cute doctor I had seen in the Indian soap commercials so five points for India.  The doctor gives me a “prescription” (maybe better described as a list because I am not sure a prescription is required) for a slew of medications to treat this vicious illness that has incapacitated me for days.  He also gets me on the fast track for blood tests, just to make sure I don’t have malaria (double yikes).  On top of this, as if I wasn’t already eternally appreciative, he allows me to sleep in his office for several hours since our hotel had insisted on a 10am checkout.  

After this great treatment and a power nap, Dan and I are off to enjoy our final day in India.  We decide that the best place for us in our frail conditions is Chowpatty Beach.  We jump in a taxi, which immediately gets pulled over by a cop.   The taxi driver starts yelling at the cop; the cop walks away and the taxi driver jumps out and says “wait here.”  I look over at Dan and say, “lets bail.”  So, we are off by foot only to be approached by our taxi driver with yells of “where did you go?”  Apparently tickets are resolved much more quickly in India…a 50 Rupee bribe to the cop and done.  So, we jump back in our taxi and head to the beach.  To no surprise, upon arriving, the driver asks for an additional 50 Rupees to cover his ticket.  As tradition has dictated (for us at least), every taxi ride in India must end with an argument, and this time would be no different. After explaining to him that there is no way in hell that we are paying for his errors, Dan hands him the original agreed upon payment, which taxi guy won’t accept.  Finally Dan drops it on the seat, and we are off….trailed by our new stalker taxi driver.  

Chowpatty beach is very nice, except for the water, which is toxic.  It is a shame that people can’t swim there but people still lounge around enjoying the beach.  There are no bikinis to speak of though, everyone was quite fully covered.  

True to Dan and Paula-style, we decide to start walking back towards our hotel neighborhood, which is approximately 10 km away, thinking we will walk only part of the way and taxi the rest.  Our stalker taxi driver passes by…but ah ha ha, now that he has passed us he has lost us for good because it is a one-way road.  An hour of nice conversation later, we are almost there, so why bother with taxis we figure, and walk the rest of the way.  This would prove to be a big mistake as we would later see on an airport bus in Abu Dhabi…                  

 Paula

Our top choice for transportation within India was the train, as it is cheap, convenient and comfortable. Figuring out the India train system however takes quite a bit of study. Seat options range from 1st class, 2AC, 3AC, 3 General, Sleeper, Chair Class, Executive Chair Class. Luckily in Delhi there is an office at the train station which is assigned the task of assisting foreigners with train reservations. It is not so easy to find the office though, as signage is sparse and scammers are clammering to tell you that it is closed, burned down, or never existed, and that the real tourist office is right up the road. Having read all the scam sections of our trusty guidebook, we were prepared for this and marched right past these men who seemed appalled that we did not believe them. We bought a ticket to Agra in Delhi but failed to buy our other tickets, thinking that it would be just as easy to book at the train stations along the way. This, unfortunately, was not the case.

In Agra we bought general tickets to our next stop, Jaipur. When the train arrived the large crowd of people clammered for the door. The train for some reason shut and locked the train doors, not allowing people to board. People started running to the other cars, trying to find a way on. Dan and I jumped onto the nearest cart and sat down, half on, half off the seat, as it was full of people. A train employee then came and told us that we were in the wrong place and that we were supposed to be one section down. At this point all the seats were completely full and the smell from the bathroom and people was unbearable. We were told that we could ask for an upgrade from the conductor…if we could locate him. With a train employee leading the way, we found the conductor who found us a new seat in sleeper class. The train employee took us to our seats and told us the upgrade would be 50 rupees. We paid the low sum and took a deep breath of relief at avoiding a 7 hour ride in general class of the train. About an hour later, the conductor came by and asked for more money for the seats. Oops, we accidentally paid a very nice tip to the train employee… oh well. The real price for the seats were too expensive, so down-graded (a bit) from sleeper to a seat class (seats instead of beds, but you already knew that) and parked there for the rest of the trip.

We couldn’t find a ticket for our big overnight train trip to Bombay from Udaipur.  After approximately 5 hours of creative train schedule surfing, we found a way to Bombay by stopping in Ahmedebad.  We were to have approximately 35 minutes to change trains which we were a little concerned about from the get go. This would be one of the small concerns though…. As we get on the train, we can hear the screams of a child. When we arrive to our seats, we find the source of noise is sitting with his family (father, mother, and brother) in our shared area. “Great, 5 hours with a bratty kid… argh, oh well… how bad could it be?” Well, maybe a list format will work for this:

1. Screaming at top of lungs basically nonstop
2. Kicking Paula in the shin, parents laugh
3. continued screaming, now climbing to the upper bunks (remember we’re in sleeper class)
4. Climbs down, kicks paula again…. paula and I realize that this is no accident and paula gives him a serious wag of the finger and tells him not to kick her. (the parents don’t laugh but still do nothing)
5. After jumping and falling into his brother, he takes offense somehow and begins punching his brother. Dan, Paula, and the mother separate the kids.
6. High fives with the kid and his dad about how tough he is…. they even faux arm-wrestle and he beats his dad…. mom and dad cheer… woohooo!!
7. More screams and climbing about.
8. Snack time… they eat some candy and other food. The kid takes the wrappers and tosses them out the window. Mother doesn’t flinch at this. A few moments later, the mom hand the kid more garbage which he immediately tosses out the window.
9. Snack time for Paula and Dan. We take out our delicious chocolate cake and begin to munch. As Dan is eating the kid is standing a little too close. In a flash the kids grubby little hand shoots toward Dan’s cake. That little bugger didn’t know that cake stealing is too far when it comes to Dan and Paula. With more speed than this child has ever witnessed, Dan blocks the kid’s hand, pushes the child across the car into the bed on the other side of the area, and immediately shoots him the look of “that’s too far, i will take … NO MORE” to the mother. She then grabs her kid and scolds him pleading “why did you try to take the cake? why? why?”….

Once we arrived to the next train station, Dan got out and found the conductor to move us to different seats. We were able to spend the rest of the night a few rows away and nearly out of ear-shot from that horrible child.

Arriving at Ahmedebad with 5 minutes to make the next train seemed like no big deal after all of that. After a bit of a sprint, we got on that final train to Bombay, we relaxed in the A/C but remained in awe of how terribly anti-social that child was… sheesh.

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